“It’s done?” asked Erin, her voice still barely a whisper. “Can we see it?”
“Right now?” asked Natasha.
“No, next week,” Erin quipped.
“Good to see you’ve still got a sense of humor,” Natasha noted. “I’ll show it to you in a moment. First, let me read you what it says.”
There was an electricity of anticipation in the room as Natasha flipped back through her notes, cleared her throat, and started to read.
“That’s it?” asked Bennett.
“That’s everything,” said Natasha.
“I don’t understand,” he continued. “The Copper Scroll pointed toward sixty-four different locations. Line 64 said that the Key Scroll would decode it all and lead us to the treasure. So what’s this? Are we sure this is even the right scroll?”
“What are the chances of you finding anything in those tunnels — a million to one?” asked Natasha. “And what are the chances of you finding a scroll also engraved on copper if it’s not connected to the first Copper Scroll? A billion to one?”
“But what good is it?” Bennett countered. “It doesn’t tell us anything.”
“Maybe it does,” said Natasha. “Look at line 5.”
“See, that’s interesting,” said Natasha, now up and pacing about the room. “That’s certainly consistent with the thinking of the Essenes. They definitely believed the end was upon them.”
“So what?” Bennett complained. “That doesn’t mean that—”
Bennett stopped in midsentence. Erin was whispering something.
“Read a few lines down,” she said. “Something about silver and gold.”
Bennett looked at Natasha, who scanned the text again and read the lines aloud.
“You think that could refer to the Temple treasures?” Natasha asked.
Erin nodded.
“She may be right,” said Natasha, looking at Bennett.
“Maybe,” he said. “But, Erin, sweetheart, that’s pretty thin evidence, you’ve got to admit, especially compared to the Copper Scroll. You said it yourself, Natasha. The first one lists over three thousand talents of silver, almost thirteen hundred talents of gold, more than sixty-five gold bars, some six hundred silver pitchers — all of which are said to contain silver — and over six hundred other vessels made of silver and gold. And you said the Key Scroll would explain it all.”
“Maybe it does,” said Erin.
“What do you mean?” asked Bennett.
“Maybe it does, and we’re just not seeing it clearly.”
“How so?”
“It’s in the mountains.”
“What is?”
“The treasure — read it again — the silver and gold won’t save them, but… ”
Again, Bennett and Natasha looked back at the text.
Was she right? Bennett wondered. Was the treasure hidden in the mountains, and if so, which ones?
52
“How many mountains are there in Israel?” Bennett asked.
Natasha looked at him with a pained expression. “Where do you want to start? There’s the Mount of Olives, Mount Hermon, Mount Zion of course, Masada—”
“Masada,” Bennett broke in. “Could that be it? That bit about ‘surviving and escaping in the mountains’? Masada is a fortress, right?”
Masada towered some fifteen hundred feet over the Dead Sea. It was the site where the last band of Jewish rebels — more than a thousand men, women, and children — held off the Roman army for four years as the Romans sought to conquer every square inch of the Holy Land for their caesar and themselves. Was it possible the Jews had taken the Second Temple treasures there? Had that been why the Romans had been so determined to seize Masada? When the Roman forces finally stormed the mountaintop fortress, they found that the entire band of Jewish insurgents had already committed suicide. Could they have killed themselves to keep the Romans from ever finding the gold and silver of their beloved Temple?
Natasha suddenly ran out of the room without saying a word. Bennett and Erin just looked at each other, perplexed. But a moment later Natasha was back with her laptop. She logged on to Miriam’s wireless Internet system and pulled up a Hebrew Bible site. Then she typed in the text from their mystery scroll and ran a search.
“What is it?” asked Bennett. “What are you looking for?”
“The language of this scroll is so curious,” Natasha explained. “I’m wondering if… ” She leaned toward her computer screen. “I knew it,” she said at last.
“Knew what?” asked Bennett.
“This first section is Scripture,” she exclaimed. “In fact, it’s an excerpt from Ezekiel, chapter 7.”
Natasha punched some keys and ran another search. “The next portion is from the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 11.”
“Does either book mention Masada?” asked Erin.
“That’s what I’m checking right now,” said Natasha as her fingers flew across the keyboard.
“And?”
Natasha looked disappointed. “Masada isn’t mentioned in either Ezekiel or Deuteronomy,” she sighed.
“Check the rest of the Bible,” Bennett suggested.
Natasha did but came up with nothing. Disappointment settled over the room.
“What about the other mountains you mentioned?” asked Bennett.
“I don’t see how that helps us,” said Natasha. “If Erin’s right — if the treasure is buried in the mountains — then there must be a clue that we’re missing.”